[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1523-1524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, 
which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Scot 
Alan Marciel, of California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign 
Service, Class of Career Minister, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and 
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Union of Burma.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Maryland
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 2 
minutes also.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator so modify his request?
  Mr. COTTON. I do modify my request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I rise today in support not only of the 
nomination of Scot Marciel to be our Ambassador to Burma but to 
celebrate the remarkable change Burma is undergoing.
  I recently traveled to Burma, leading a congressional delegation 
hosted by our Embassy there, Ambassador Derek Mitchell, and Deputy 
Chief of Mission Kristen Bauer.
  Burma has undergone a remarkable transition. After 50 years of a 
brutal military dictatorship, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her 
party won a landslide election in November. The

[[Page 1524]]

military is still entrenched in power, but gradual change is occurring, 
in part thanks to U.S. policies. It is change we should continue to 
support.
  Sitting at the intersection of China and India, Burma is a 
geostrategically critical country. Sitting, as it does, between the 
crossroads of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, it is critical to the 
War on Terror. Burma can be a potent trading partner because of its 
largely untapped natural resources and is a shining example of the 
strategic impact of U.S. moral leadership in the world.
  Those elections were not the end of the work, though; they are only 
the beginning of the work. The military still has a deep role in the 
Constitution. The National League for Democracy needs to transition 
from an opposition party to a governing party. Burma must address its 
internal ethnic conflicts, and, like most countries, it needs to 
address corruption and economic reforms as well. Our mission team in 
Rangoon is working on all these matters and more. I know that 
Ambassador Marciel looks forward to leading that team and continuing to 
strengthen the U.S.-Burma relationship.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to join Senator Cotton in urging 
our colleagues to vote for the confirmation of Scot Marciel to be 
Ambassador to Burma for the reasons Senator Cotton pointed out.
  There are exciting things happening in Burma. It is a country in 
transition. We have seen some promise. There are still major challenges 
in that country. We clearly need a confirmed ambassador. It is 
important that the Senate act, and I am glad to see we will be acting 
in a few moments.
  We couldn't have a more qualified person to take on the 
ambassadorship of Burma than Scot Marciel. He currently serves as the 
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific 
Affairs. I got to know him very well in that capacity in the last 
Congress when I chaired the subcommittee of the Senate Foreign 
Relations on East Asia and the Pacific. He is a career diplomat who has 
taken on some of the most challenging positions in Foreign Service, 
including being the Chief of Mission in Indonesia. He has devoted his 
life to these challenges. I know he will do an excellent job 
representing U.S. interests in Burma.
  I urge our colleagues to support the nomination.
  Mr. President, I yield back the time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Marciel nomination?
  Mr. MENENDEZ. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
Graham), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Florida 
(Mr. Rubio), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Sasse), the Senator from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), 
the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from New 
Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 19 Ex.]

                                YEAS--90

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Udall
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--10

     Cruz
     Graham
     Mikulski
     Risch
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Sasse
     Shaheen
     Toomey
     Vitter
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Under the previous order, the President will be immediately notified 
of the Senate's action.

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